


Little Big World

by DilynAliceBlake



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (to defeat the huns), Age Play, Ageplay, Establishing boundaries, FYI, I don't know, In Retrospect, In case, M/M, Nonsexual, Nonsexual Ageplay, about how they Feel, also, and if they'll continue, and whether Steve overstepped, definite power imbalance, go away, i needed to put those tags together, i wrote this so long ago, idk - Freeform, is so very power imbalance-y, let's get down to business, like tony needs to have a Serious Conversation with steve, okay, omfg, outside of headspace, right then, they need to talk, this fic, um
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 11:49:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8623432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DilynAliceBlake/pseuds/DilynAliceBlake
Summary: Tony is Little and Steve notices.





	1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I wrote this a really long time ago.  Like before I ever heard Hamilton long ago.  In case you're wondering at the lack of diverse cast and/or why I'm suddenly Avengers active again.  The answer is, it was written during my younger fandom days.**

 

Tony was on a bender, and Pepper was at the end of her rope trying to deal with him. He was more drunk than was advisable in a lab full of dangerous tools, and hadn’t slept in, by her best guess, about three days. 

“Miss Potts?” 

It was Steve.

“Really,” she reminded, “call me Pepper.”

He shuffled awkwardly, but gave a nod, though the woman knew that he would likely continue with his current pattern of behavior until he settled into his new life.

Jarvis sent another text to her phone, and she sighed upon reading it, the sound loud in the shared space of the elevator.

“Is there a problem?” asked the soldier.

He just sounded so _sincere_ in his concern, how could she not share her worries? 

“Tony’s been a real mess these last few days. I’m at wits end trying to wrangle him on top of running the company.” 

She gave a brief rundown of Tony’s worry-inducing behavior. 

“He isn’t sleeping, he refuses to eat anything besides cheeseburgers and those ridiculous smoothies of his, he won’t answer my calls, _he_ calls drunk at ridiculous hours….”

“Calm down,” Steve soothed. “Look, why don’t you take a break from genius duty, and I’ll see what I can do?”

“Oh Steve, I couldn’t possibly let you-”

“I insist.” He gave his Hero Smile. “I am team captain, after all.”

“Well, alright.” At the very least, she thought, it would give her time to recuperate, and Tony might be in a more manageable mood after having to argue with someone besides her.

Relieved of her caretaking responsibilities, at least temporarily, Pepper watched as Steve exited the elevator and made his way towards Tony’s lab, sagging with relief as the silver doors slid shut.

“Where to, Miss Potts?”

“The gym, I think, Jarvis. I need to work off a few layers of this stress.”

“Right away, then.”

“Thanks Jarv.”

“As always, my pleasure.”


	2. Chapter 2

Steven Grant Rogers may have been new to the future, but he’d recently been introduced to the phenomena that was the internet, and he had just as much useless trivia stored in his brain as anyone else with access to a search bar and a penchant for link hopping. Actually, with his phenomenal memory, maybe more.  

Perhaps if he hadn’t been spending so much time glued to the screen lately, it wouldn’t have occurred to him what precisely Tony’s behavior reminded him of. Or rather, he wouldn’t have thought to treat a grown man acting like a child, exactly like a child.

If he tried this and he was wrong, he could probably write it off as someone new to the future misunderstanding the trends, and assuming something was more common than it actually was. The reverse had happened when he had thought that microwaves were high tech shield military gear, only to find out they’d been around since the eighties.

He suspected this mistake, if it was, would be harder to live down. If, of course, he was mistaken, and if Tony decided to tell anyone about it.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey, Tony, Pepper said you were still in here.”

“You here to lecture me too, Cap?”

“Not at all.”

Both of Tony’s eyebrows rose in a show of incredulity.

“No? Mr. Upstanding American Values himself isn’t here to give me a serious talk about my less savory habits?” Tony gestured to a half empty bottle of what was probably a really expensive whisky.

“No, you aren’t in trouble this time, because this is the first time I’m hearing about it. If you go overboard again, then we’ll need to have a talk about moderation.”

Tony suddenly seems annoyed, which for Steve is either very good or very bad. It could be a sign that he was going in the right direction, or it could be a sign that he was about to _seriously_ overstep his bounds. Nothing to do but barrel on.

“You can’t tell me what to do, Rogers, I’m a grown man.

"Steve steps close, closer, too close, until Tony has to look up to see him face to face.

“Oh, but you’re _not_ , and so I _can_.”

“I’m not?” Tony is trying for incredulous, but the alcohol that fails to make him slur is leaving his emotions wide open for Steve’s perusal, and all he sounds is insecure.

“It’s okay, Tony,” Steve’s voice is gently reassuring, one he might use talking to a very young child. He hasn’t got a mental age pinned down for Tony yet, but Steve is willing to bet the inventor is on the littler side of little right now. Old enough to make his way around passably when in headspace, to hide it convincingly most of the time, but—Ah, there, a lip wobble pronounced enough to confirm it.

“Sweetheart,” Steve dares, “What are you doing down here on your own when you’re so _little_?”

The keyword confirms it for Tony, and suddenly he’s a mess of tears and hiccoughs.

“You can’t tell anyone, please, don’t tell the others, they can’t _know_ —“

Steve needs to cut this off before it leads to hysterics.

“Hey, hey, Tony, Tones.” Scooping the boy up and cradling him in serum-enhanced arms is another risk, but Steve does it, and rubs soothing circles on the billionaires back. Humming the tune to _Take Me Out to the Ballgame_ , he’s mildly surprised when the genius quiets into a much needed slumber.

Steve huffs, somewhere between a sigh and a laugh, but there’s no course of action but to take Tony to bed. At the edge of the lab when the doors don’t automatically swing open, the soldier has a moment of panic. Then he remembers precisely what, or rather, who is in control of the doors, and bites the inside of his cheek.

“ _Jarvis!_ ” he whispers, praying that the microphones can pick it up. “ _Jarvis, open the door, I have to take him to bed._ ”

Text appears on the surface of the glass in front of him, fast and very nearly agitated, asking what exactly just transpired. Steve is floored at the fact that the A.I. didn’t know. Tony must never have used any of his computers to look up anything. That means the genius either knew early, and had done any research before Jarvis; or else he had been _very_ careful about finding the information. Then again, it could just be common knowledge, like other forms of BDSM, but Steve thinks if that were the case Jarvis would’ve been smart enough to put two and two together.

“ _Check my search history_ ,” Steve hisses quietly, then gives another pointed look at the door. It slides open without a sound, and the elevator doesn’t even make its usual _ding_. 


	4. Chapter 4

Tony fusses a little when put into bed, and Steve has to bite his lip at how adorable the boy is. He smooths Tony’s hair back, running his fingers through it until absolutely sure that he’s sound asleep. The captain can’t quite resist removing the inventor’s shoes and tucking him in snugly before slinking out. Jarvis dims the lights for him, or more probably for Tony, and Steve wonders if the genius will want to talk about this in the morning.

He’d rather not just ignore it and let him get up to whatever he wants until he runs himself into the ground, but Tony isn’t _his_ , and Steve isn’t going to force the boy. He’ll step in again if he’s asked to, but he doesn’t have any real right to police Tony’s behavior, natural caregiver or not.

The next day, Tony awakes drowsy and relaxed in a way he hasn’t been since before Afghanistan. Recollection doesn’t swarm him all at once; rather, it creeps in chronologically. He had been in headspace, down playing in the lab. Pepper had been texting him a lot, but she didn’t like taking care of him, she called it a ‘ _have to_ ,’ so Tony was ignoring her.

He knew, logically, that Pepper didn’t, _couldn’t_ know what Tony needed, but when he was little logic was distant, and temper was hot. He had called Rhodey to tell him about an exciting breakthrough that would decrease the Iron Patriot suit’s turn margin, but it had been late, and Rhodey had been rather mean about the fact that it could wait ‘til tomorrow.

Tony had wanted to cry at that, because no one was paying any attention to him, and his tummy felt weird from the smoothie Dummy made him, but crying wouldn’t help anything: He knew from experience. So, in a rather terrible use of reasoning, Tony had decided to drink whisky to try and feel better.

Not too long after throwing up the smoothie that had _definitely_ had motor oil in it, who other than Captain America himself had walked into his lab.

Tony wants to stop the memory there, because it can’t have gone well after that, but something about the way he’s tucked in tickles at his memory.

Rogers had _seen_. Somehow, that outdated relic had taken one look at Tony and recognized his biggest secret. It doesn’t make any sense, goes against every prediction Tony’s ever made about risks of discovery, and a huge part of him is still in denial about the fact that anyone knows.

He wriggles his toes in his socks, and feels a phantom hand running through his hair, take me out to the ballgame hummed at a soothing rumble.

Jesus _fuck_ , even denial only goes so far.

Okay, so denial time is over. Time for his backup: Avoidance.


	5. Chapter 5

He starts with calling Rhodes and apologizing for waking him, with an offhanded “I was drunk,” explanation, and assurances he will be able to upgrade the turning on his friend’s suit next time he’s in, as well as fix anything Rhodey has had the indecency to mess up.

Next up on his list is Pepper, who apparently didn’t even know he wasn’t still in his lab.

“Go to bed? Pep, I just woke up!”

“What?”

“I already slept. Could do without the hangover, but other than that I’m right as rain.”

There’s a string of curses on the other end of the line, and apparently Pepper doesn’t know whether to praise Steve for his help or string him up for not telling her he’d succeeded in coercing Tony into getting some rest.

Which means that Steve probably hasn’t talked to anyone about last night (and man does Tony wish he was thinking that sentence under different circumstances.) Still, it’s a weight off his shoulders, because that means Tony’s secret is more than likely still (mostly) a secret.

Tony stares at Steve’s name in his contacts for quite some time, before Jarvis interrupts.

“Sir, if you are not going to contact Captain Rogers, now would be a good time to discuss the ramifications of the past few days, and their culmination in last night, with me.”

Jarvis sounds exactly like his namesake when Tony had kept secrets from _him_ , and like _hell_ is Tony facing that this early, so he presses Call.

“Hey Cap. Steve. Stevaroonie. Icepop.“ Tony coughs awkwardly. “Um, maybe scratch the last one.”

“Hey, Tony! Are you feeling better?”

“I, uh, yeah, let’s just cut to the chase. How did you know?”

“What, last night? I have the internet, Tony. ”

“I highly doubt you just happened to accidentally search exactly the right words to bring such a lifestyle to your attention.”

“Hey, I’m plenty tech savvy!”

“You thought the microwave was the pinnacle of innovation.”

“I _still_ think the microwave is the pinnacle of innovation.”

“Uh, hello, Iron Man here; you’re really bruisin my ego Cap.”

“ _Anyway_ , so I was on Tumblr-”

“You have a _Tumblr_?!?”

“Why, is that bad? Should I not?”

“No, I… Wow. That’s really leftist of you. Should I be asking your preferred pronouns right now?”

“Was that a joke? I’m not sure you should be joking about-”

“Nope, suddenly your presence on Tumblr makes perfect sense; I’m sure you fit right in.”

“…”

“Right, I’m gonna go now. This has been a fun chat. I’m never going to be able to look at you again without thinking about memes.”

“Wait, Tony, before you go!”

“What, Rogers?”

“…Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer.”

Then Steve had hung up and Tony’s idol was ruined. Or better. He hadn’t quite decided yet.

“Captain America likes memes and spends his spare time on Tumblr.” Tony groaned. “No one will ever believe me.”

 

**A/N: Looking back on this my writing was so??? Juvenile???**


End file.
